This morning the 7th of January 2011, MAS staff in the Penang Airport - Malaysia refused me to let me fly to Bandung – Indonesia with the message that I need a visa to go there. In spite of my assurance that a Visa on Arrival (VOA) is given in Bandung, they insisted I could not fly there. My ticket was cancelled. I contacted the MAS in KL and in Penang, but both referred me to an MAS E-mail address. I am aware that it is the responsibility of the passenger to check whether he needs a Visa or not, therefore I visited, long before booking, the websites of:

All are very clear that a VOA is given to people from the Netherlands (my nationality) on the Hussein Sastranegara airport in Bandung. Moreover there are many more websites with the same message. In conclusion I did my homework (booked the ticket already on the 22nd of December) and do not understand why I was not allowed to fly. I am a frequent traveler and am not so stupid not to verify whether I need a visa or not. If I, as a layman, can find that I do not need a visa for Bandung, why can the MAS not do the same, being the professionals.

Please do not come with the excuse that there is no refund on this ticket. I blame the MAS for the full 100% and hope that you come up with some decent compensation. The MAS spoiled my holidays, made friends in Bandung unhappy and gave me now a lot of extra work.

It seems like the timatic for MAS either is not up-to-date or that Indonesia has changed its policy regarding VOA without updating their websites.
Regardless you have a very valid claim and should be fully compensated, if MAS is not going to take action in Malaysia, send it to the department in the Netherlands, i assume you bought the ticket here?

Bilingual, thanks for your reply. Pretty sure it is due to not updating the timatic. The websites mentioned were all of a recent date. Older websites do not mention Bandung as eligible for VOA. Bought the ticket over the Internet in Malaysia. They will investigate and come back to me in 7 working days. Threatened them with Small Claim Court if not. Thanks.

Today we write 2 of March, nearly 8 weeks after my first complaint to MAS for not allowing me to fly to Bandung from Penang airport. I am stillwaiting for a reply from Tengku Zuraya who has promised me to reply 3 times after my 8 requests, but I have still not got any. Also their PR Department, which promised to reply 3 months ago within 3 days, never came back to me. I wrote to the Malay Mail, which has a section for consumer complaints, but they seem afraid for the "big brother" and never published this genuine complaint. Make you wonder why all these people are employed for doing nothing. Anyhow we continue with our quest to get some justice, but it is a real disappointing experience and shows that malaysia is far from a developed nation, something they want to achieve by 2020.

Flew Malaysian 4 years ago, and they lost my baggage, this was coming back to Auckland. Since then I have vowed myself never to fly again, but out of a choice in dates I had to take MH again on 17/09 to attend my cousins wedding. Flight was delayed 2hrs in Auckland which gave me a lay over in KUL for 6hrs. No accommodation, no apologies, ground staff in KL seems to be lost and on their own. Anyways, I am tired of writing complaints which I did to MH and still waiting on a reply a week ago.. I have already influence 8 people on this summer holiday to avoid MH and they have.. Dont want them to ruin their vacation.